Melvin Richardson v. Superintendent Coal Township S

BIBAS, Circuit Judge.

Melvin Richardson was denied counsel for part of his state-court sentencing. But neither his post-sentencing lawyer nor his state-habeas lawyer challenged that denial of counsel. Now, on federal habeas, he seeks to challenge his post-sentencing lawyer's ineffectiveness.

To do so, he has to overcome both lawyers' failures. He must attack his post-sentencing lawyer's failure to raise the denial of counsel as itself a denial of effective counsel. But he can do that only if he had a right to counsel at the post-sentencing stage. And, before attacking his post-sentencing…